Assuming Quotes - Page 36

• Indeed, not all attacks-especially the bitter and ridiculing kind leveled at Darwin-are offered in good faith, but for practical purposes it is good policy to assume that they are.

  Hans Selye

  Faith, Science, Purpose

  Hans Selye (1964). “From dream to discovery: on being a scientist”

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• Prophecy and history predict and record a great and universal apostasy which was to be followed by a restoration as predicted by John in Revelation. The fact of the great apostasy is attested by both sacred and secular writ, and history bears witness that it became universal. We proclaim this fact of history not as an attack on any church. We do not assume any position of "holier than thou" or "wiser than thou," but we announce this historic fact of the apostasy as a vindication of the claim that there has been in fact a restoration of the gospel.

  Hugh B. Brown

  Historical, Church, Restoration

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• It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. . . . The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Knowing, Historical

  Homo Neanderthalensis Baltimore Sun, The Impossible Mencken, June 29, 1925.

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• There's no reason to assume that my idea of what's better would really be better. I resent it when other people try to inflict their ideas of betterness on me. I don't think they know. And I can't see any authority on the horizon that's got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are suggested are probably detrimental to your mental health.

  Frank Zappa

  Thinking, Ideas, People

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• I think utopianism and eschatology are really two sides of the same coin. They both assume that some massively transformative event is going to happen that's going to completely change the nature of society. They only disagree on whether we get a happy ending or all die horribly. And so utopianism is on the wane right now because at the moment most of the plausible candidates for huge historical transformation look like they're going to kill us.

  Phillip Sandifer

  Thinking, Two Sides, Historical

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• Individuality is a real power inherent in all and the development and consequent expression of this power enables one to assume the responsibility of directing his own footsteps rather than stampeding after some self-assertive bell-wether.

  Charles F. Haanel

  Real, Responsibility, Self

  Charles F. Haanel (2006). “Mental Chemistry”, p.60, Kallisti Publishing

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• Do not be too quick to assume your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage. Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels that you are afraid of him. And perhaps if he believed you are capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy.

  Thomas Merton

  Life, Thinking, Political

  Thomas Merton (2002). “Seeds”

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• I belong to a generation - assuming that this generation includes others besides me - that lost its faith in the gods of the old religions as well as in the gods of modern nonreligions. I reject Jehova as I reject humanity.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Humanity, This Generation, Generations

  Fernando Pessoa, Richard Zenith (2002). “The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa”, p.304, Grove Press

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• The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.

  David Ogilvy

  Giving, Wife, Vapid

  Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963) ch. 5

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• Composers tend to assume that everyone loves music. Surprisingly enough, everyone doesn’t.

  Aaron Copland

  Music Love, One Love, Enough

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• That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Government, Liberty, Citizens

  Ezra Taft Benson (1969). “An enemy hath done this”

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• Say no to an ephemeral, superficial and throwaway culture, a culture that assumes that you are incapable of taking on responsibility and facing the great challenges of life!

  Pope Francis

  Responsibility, Challenges, Culture

  Pope Francis (2017). “Happiness in This Life: A Passionate Meditation on Earthly Existence”, p.20, Random House

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• Never be frightened by those you assume have more talent than you do, because in the end energy will prevail. My formula is: energy plus talent and you are a king; energy and no talent and you are still a prince; talent and no energy and you are a pauper.

  Jeffrey Archer

  Kings, Energy, Talent

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• Eventually, a collection ceases to be a personal indulgence and assumes its own identity. In fact, it becomes a thing in its own right - rather like Frankenstein's monster.

  Howard Hodgkin

  Identity, Facts, Monsters

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• I can't blame modern technology for my predilection for distraction, not after all the hours I've spent watching lost balloons disappear into the clouds. I did it before the Internet, and I'll do it after the apocalypse, assuming we still have helium and weak-gripped children.

  Colson Whitehead

  Children, Technology, Clouds

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• As long as people are marginalized and distracted [they] have no way to organize or articulate their sentiments, or even know that others have these sentiments. People assume that they are the only people with a crazy idea in their heads. They never hear it from anywhere else. Nobody's supposed to think that. ... Since there's no way to get together with other people who share or reinforce that view and help you articulate it, you feel like an oddity, an oddball. So you just stay on the side and you don't pay any attention to what's going on. You look at something else, like the Superbowl.

  Noam Chomsky

  Crazy, Thinking, Oddities

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• On the other hand, the waging of peace as a science, as an art, is in its infancy. But we can trace its growth, its steady progress, and the time will come when there will be particular individuals designated to assume responsibility for and leadership of this movement.

  Fredrik Bajer

  Art, Responsibility, Hands

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• There must not be one law for the Jew and another for the Arabs....In saying this, I do not assume that there are tendencies toward inequalirty or discrimination. It is merely a timely warning which is particularly necessary because we shall have a very large Arab minority. I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish State by what it will do with the Arabs, just as the Jewish people at large will be judged by what we do or fail to do in this state where we have been given such a wonderful opportunity after thousands of years of wandering and suffering.

  Chaim Weizmann

  Opportunity, Israel, Years

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• I spend most of my time assuming the world is not ready for the technology revolution that will be happening to them soon.

  Eric Schmidt

  Technology, World, Revolution

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• Even apart from the image of a truly merciless God that contradicts everything we can assume from what Jesus says about the Either of the lost, can we be surprised at a time when retributive punishments without an opportunity of probation are being increasingly abandoned in education and penal justice, that the idea not only of a lifelong, but even eternal punishment of body and soul, seems to many people absolutely monstrous.

  Hans Kung

  Jesus, Opportunity, Punishment

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• People instantly assume you can't have a platonic friendship with someone of the opposite sex. I think this may be specific to L.A.—or America.

  Isabel Lucas

  Sex, Thinking, Opposites

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I still get angry when older people assume that everyone in my generation, screws around. They're probably the same ones who think all kids use dope. It's true that we are more open than our parents but that just means we accept sex and talk about it. It doesn't mean we are all jumping into bed together.

  Judy Blume

  Sex, Mean, Kids

  Judy Blume (2014). “Forever”, p.24, Pan Macmillan

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• Thus if we know a child has had sufficient opportunity to observe and acquire a behavioral sequence, and we know he is physically capable of performing the act but does not do so, then it is reasonable to assume that it is motivation which is lacking. The appropriate countermeasure then involves increasing the subjective value of the desired act relative to any competing response tendencies he might have, rather than having the model senselessly repeat an already redundant sequence of behavior.

  Urie Bronfenbrenner

  Children, Motivation, Opportunity

  Urie bronfenbrenner (1978). “2 Wrlds Childhood”, Pocket Books

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• The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers are generally brainless swine who can go out on a stage & whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to the office & sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Probably the rarest form of life in American politics is the man who can turn on a crowd & still keep his head straight - assuming it was straight in the first place.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Men, Office, Democracy

  Hunter S. Thompson (2012). “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72”, p.111, Simon and Schuster

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• I just assume I'm not invisible. I assume I'm wearing fluorescent clothes, and there's a million-dollar bounty going to the first driver who manages to hit me. And I ride on that assumption.

  Neal Stephenson

  Clothes, Dollars, Firsts

  Neal Stephenson (2007). “Zodiac”, p.41, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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